Wednesday, December 11, 2013

In Your Local Shops Now!

Here is the cover of the book published to mark the bicentenary of St Finian's, Newcastle. A year in the making and compiled by a very active committee headed by Bridget Breen, it was launched in St Finian's Community Hall on Thursday 5th. It contains 254 pages about the church and the locality, covering a wide range of topics -- religious, historical, educational and cultural. Coffee-table-book in size and in richness of pictorial illustration it may be, but it will surely be pored over on all sorts of tables (hopefully not also 'poured' over by the over-engrossed reader!). Fr Pat Egan SDB deserves great credit for the high quality of the layout and printing. It costs 10 Euro, a very reasonable price for such a fine production.

Saggart residents will be interested in the article on the person who was responsible for the building of St Finian's, Fr Andrew Hart, P.P. of the 'United Parishes' from 1812 until his death in 1815. He is buried in St Mary's, below that fine effigy we all know so well. This book offers Saggart parishioners the opportunity to get to know the man they see, spiritually, every Sunday.

Another memorable occasion in the annals of our two parishes took place on Sunday, 1st December, when Rathcoole parishioners celebrated the 25th anniversary of the church of the Holy Family.

Celebrations all round, then, in the parishes at the end of the (liturgical) year.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Newsletter, 1 December 2013

The Newsletter for the first Sunday of the new liturgical year (the first Sunday of Advent) can be read at 1.12.2013

On that day Rathcoole church celebrated the silver jubilee of its foundation. Bishop Eamonn Walsh said Mass at 12, and afterwards blessed the new church bell, set between two newly built pillars at the left of the entrance. But this, in fact, is not a 'new' bell at all, since originally it hung in the church in the Johnstown Kennedy estate, near Rathcoole. When the church was no longer in use, the bell was given into the care of Pat Corcoran, who thought it might be installed as a bell for the church of the Holy Family. This is what has now come to pass, thanks to members of the Parish Pastoral Council. And the name above the door looks lovely too!

This Thursday (see Newsletter) will see the final and culminating events marking the bicentenary of St Finian's, Newcastle: the unveiling in the church of a plaque donated by the Church of Ireland parishioners, the launch of a CD by St Finian's NS, and the launch of a book on the history of the church and its locality.

Welcome

Fáilte andWelcome, visitors to this site for the united parishes of Saggart / Rathcoole / Brittas and Newcastle Lyons in west County Dublin. The site is for the benefit of parishioners first of all and then for anyone who may drop in from elsewhere. 'Rath Dé' on your work as we pray for it on ours.

Contributors

Parishes of Saggart, Rathcoole, Brittas and Newcastle Lyons

"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the centre of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs ... There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun". Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.